TorahVision

Two New Chanukah Videos from TorahVision!

2010-11-29T10:12:00.000-08:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVpZt-MCJkw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxnvvnni87k

These Jewish digital shorts are 100% viewer supported. If you find educational and entertainment value in these videos, please consider making a $1.00 tax-deductible contribution to help support their production and distribution. It's really easy and really helps.

https://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/contribute/donate/1739

New Rosh HaShanah Video from TorahVision

2010-09-13T16:31:00.000-07:00

Learning How to Walk

2010-03-17T21:19:00.000-07:00

After months of procrastination, I actually started shooting this evening. I made myself a quota of 75 frames. And as I knew it would, this looks awful. That is the reason I procrastinated, so I wouldn't have to face this amateurish attempt at animation I've produced and realize how far I have to go.

I've been studying a lot of walk cycles, on youtube and in print, and for some reason the minifig looks like he's limping. Not exactly sure what I'm doing wrong. I think I might've forgotten which leg was supposed to go forward in the middle of the cycle once or twice, and doubled up on the same leg. Also, the green chromakey dots popped up on the screen a few times. Not sure what caused that.

I keep telling myself, enjoy the learning process, honor your mistakes. You gotta learn how to walk before you can run. The Simpsons looked pretty horrid the first time they appeared on TV as well.

This is fun. Really fun. Lots of fun...Oh what fun this is.....

Taking On the Torah, One Frame At A Time

2010-02-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

So the medium is called stop-motion animation. Even if you don't recognize it by name, you've probably seen some films or TV shows utilizing it, without realizing how the content was produced. Stop-motion is basically filming (or taping) a subject for a single frame, stopping the camera, repositioning the subject(s), and turning the camera back on again to capture yet another frame. When you do this 25 or 30 times and then assemble all of the frames together, one after the other, you've produced a second of seamless animation.

Typical stop-motion subjects are miniature figurines, filmed very close-up to lend the illusion of life-size subjects. Some people use clay puppets with wire armatures for easy movement. Miniature figurines, like legos also make good subjects, since it is relatively easy to track their movement in between frames on the baseboard studs.

Nowadays there is software available that captures video a single frame at a time, so there's no need to actually turn off the camera manually. There's also software that superimposes, transparently, the previous frame with the present one, which helps you track the movement from frame to frame. This feature is called onion skinning (onion skins are supposed to be somewhat transparent), and is extremely useful if the unthinkable happens, like when your table gets knocked over and you lose the positioning of the subject for the next frame's movement.

There is software that helps you edit the frames together, add in audio tracks, create a green screen background (your subjects can appear in front of any photograph or video background), and even software that helps you synch the subjects' mouth movements to the audio track. There is software with tons of special effects that can be accomplished, like creating fire and smoke. This is aside from the natural tricks you can avail yourself of since you're turning off the camera in between frames, like creating the illusion of things disappearing and reappearing, jumping and flying through the air.

Did I mention that all of the above is available as freeware? (TorahVision exclusively uses Martin Price's Helium Frog Animator.) There are online communities dedicated to the art of stop-motion and many talented people more than eager to answer any question you might have about how to execute various effects.

The production overhead is almost nill. I already had a desktop PC. A good webcam, the Logitech Quickcam 9000 cost me 80$. A few desk lights cost me about $20. Around the house I found some wax paper and clothespinned it to the lights to soften the glare. I hunted through my sons' lego bins for the pieces that I needed. At the hobby shop I purchased lots of miniature dollhouse accessories, like food and pots and pans, for about 40$. I bought some paper tak to keep things glued in place for about $4. I took a piece of green construction paper and a piece of cardboard for backing from my kids' arts and crafts bin. Some tape was another $3. A table with a large surface from Loew's cost about 45$. That's it. Under 200$ and I have a production studio, actors, and full set.

Music and sound effects are readily available for free on the internet, and for voiceovers I visited the Ohio School of Broadcasting and offered some students a small stipend and their name in the credits in return for lending their talents to the production.

The one commodity that does not come cheap is production time. I will be shooting at 15 frames per second. That translates to 15 individual shots, with slight, precise repositioning of the subjects in between each frame, to produce a mere second of animation. 900 frames for a minute's worth of video. 40, 500 frames to make 45 minutes worth of content.

All the parts are finally in place, yet I have not begun actual shooting. I am anticipating the first minute will probably take me a month to get down, which is a generous window of time. I am hoping that as I become more proficient in the process, it will speed up considerably. Stay tuned.

TorahVision is in a Very Delicate Place Right Now

2010-01-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

Embarking on a new venture is hard. But it's not nearly as hard as starting the venture over after having ran yourself into a wall and burnt out. Don't really want to dwell on it, so instead I'm just going to post an update on the project as it stands now.

Matthue Roth did an interview with Matisyahu right before the release of his latest album and the article opened with the words, "Matisyahu is in a very delicate place right now". That pretty much sums up how I feel about TorahVision right now; we're in a very delicate place.

On the one hand, no real progress has been made since 9/08 when the demo came out, except if you count the website that went up in January '09, the shoot in the shul that I did over President's Day weekend which I never edited, and some nibbles from Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation. Yes, things have been pretty quiet on the TV front this past year.

I decided that I was going to take some time to just write. I had been so heavily involved in the promotional aspect of the project that I was starting to lose touch with why I was so excited about the project in the first place; TorahVision was supposed to be an expression of my creativity, anchored to content that is eternal (to quote myself). So I released my hold on all the other aspects of the project; the search for funding and collaboraters, the networking and the market analysis, and just hunkered down to write and come up with something brand new that I would get excited about again. Ultimately, I realized that, while all of the business angles were important to pursue, content is and always will be king. If I could just write and produce something good enough around 45 minutes long (standard length of kids' Jewish DVDs), I'd have a commodity to build some momentum off of and a shot at sustainability.

In June '09 I started working on a script on the Passover Haggadah. This time there would be a story, with characters and conflicts, not just individual, informative segments. The hard part was writing without limiting myself to any one medium; animation or video, or even puppetry (I had become very influenced by Sesame Street over the past year after reading the Tipping Point). I wanted the story to be as inspired as possible, but since I already knew firsthand the amount of time, work, and money that went into producing it, and I hadn't yet identified a source of funding or a faithful crew to work on spec, I kept on having to write with the following guidelines in mind: it has to a) be able to be produced by me (which already lent itself to video since I didn't anticipate learning to animate in my lifetime), b) for the cheapest amount of money I can get away with, c) still maintain a decent standard of production quality.

I finished writing around November. When the pen finally came up from the paper, I realized I had amassed a lot of very inspired material. I had characters; Bitter Herb, who's kind of like a Jewish Oscar the Grouch, and Lene Gene, a smooth, Billy-Dee-Williams type of character who teaches the art of reclining at the seder. But even though I had scaled back, I still couldn't figure out how I could produce it myself, even on video, without hiring proficient acting talent and an editor for several thousand dollars, and without it taking forever to produce.

And then the weirdest thing happened. I stumbled upon a way to kill three birds with one stone. I could still animate the script (my 1st choice; video was always just a way to do it cheaper and quicker), produce it almost entirely myself (without having to rely on animators and artists, which up until now had meant at least 3-4 rounds of lengthy e-mail correspondence as I tried to convey precise instructions about how I wanted my ideas brought to life) and it would cost almost nothing to produce. The only overhead would be a decent digital camera, voice actors, and the animated objects and sets, literally penny change. And I still had $1000 saved up, left over from the fundraising that I did the first time around. I went from not having a clue where the money for production was going to come from, to having more than twice what I needed for this production!

Yes, TorahVision is in a very delicate place. More to follow.

What Happened to the You and the Project?

2009-06-10T12:49:00.000-07:00

The short version is: I burnt myself out writing grant proposals, got bronchitis, got some interest from UpStart Bay Area, lost my job and had to forfeit residency, got some interest from Bikkurim and considered moving back to NYC. Then, the LOI I had written to Righteous Persons' Foundation back in November was finally answered. They were interested but wanted to see more content before they came on board. Bikkurim lost interest. Received some scathingly personal criticism from someone I respected, and then the last little part of me that hadn't been fried yet got totally burnt to a crisp. I ran out of steam and spent the last few months taking stock of what made me run while chasing jobs all over the country-Houston, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Ohio...a place to relocate TorahVision to and begin afresh with renewed vigor. That place is.... Columbus, Ohio! We'll be moving there this summer. Lessons learned along the way will be forthcoming in the next few months. Goodbye Bay Area. Welcome back me.

TorahVision's New Promotional Website-Comments Encouraged

2009-03-04T23:57:00.001-08:00

www.torahvision.org

Goodnight-

DAN

What a Day

2009-02-16T21:30:00.000-08:00

So I couldn't gain access to the Palo Alto Courthouse in the end, despite all the strings I pulled. When even the judge himself can't help, that's when you know it's time to go to plan B. Instead, I got access to Stanford Law School's Moot Courtroom. That's what they use for student trials, but it was only available this weekend on Saturday. That's when you know it's time to go to plan C.
So I shot three different segments yesterday at Emek Beracha with Ben (he's the camera guy who came down from Marin to shoot the weather piece this past summer). It was the most elaborate production to date. I am too busy to write all the details, but they say a picture is worth a 1000 words, so in the meantime, here are several thousand words.

Wheels of Production About to Turn Again

2008-12-31T21:10:00.000-08:00

Presidents' Day Weekend. Palo Alto Courthouse. Kiddush Segment. Most Ambitious Undertaking to Date. Director, Camera Op, Dollies, Multiple Actors, Extras, Props and Wardrobe. Will Cost $5000 to Produce. Have $1000 in Hand. Moving Forward Anyways.

(Francis Ford Coppola had to mortgage everything he owned to complete Apocolypse Now and look what happened...)

Wins

Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Vittorio Storaro)
Academy Award for Best Sound (Walter Murch, Mark Berger, Richard Beggs, Nathan Boxer)
Cannes Film Festival: Palme d'Or
Golden Globe Award for Best Director (Francis Ford Coppola)
Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)
Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (Carmine Coppola & Francis Ford Coppola)
In 2000, Apocalypse Now was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Nominations

Academy Award for Best Picture
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture — Drama
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor — (Robert Duvall)
Academy Award for Best Art Direction — Set Decoration (Angelo P. Graham, George R. Nelson and Dean Tavoularis)
Academy Award for Directing (Francis Ford Coppola)
Academy Award for Film Editing (Lisa Fruchtman, Gerald B. Greenberg, Richard Marks and Walter Murch)
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Francis Ford Coppola & John Milius)
WGA Award for Best Drama Written Directly for the Screen (John Milius & Francis Ford Coppola)
Grammy Award for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture (Carmine Coppola & Francis Ford Coppola)

Please consider making a tax deductible contribution to TorahVision. Your tzedakah will go directly towards the production of individual segments on the topic of the mitzvot and be seen by tens and thousands of viewers; it's a chance to spread Jewish education the world over. And it's a cool cause: you can tell your friends that you help produce educational animation for a cutting-edge website for Jewish children!

Elevator Pitch

2008-11-19T21:37:00.000-08:00

An elevator pitch is an overview of an idea for a product, service, or project. The name reflects the fact that an elevator pitch can be delivered in the time span of an elevator ride (for example, thirty seconds and 100-150 words).

In early 2007, a dream team of Jewish educators delivered a set of instructional goals on the topics of Shabbat and the Jewish holidays to several top-notch comedy writers. Their task: pen a series of imaginative scripts to be produced as multimedia segments to breathe new life into day school and synagogue educational programs. Fast forward to summer 2008: The bulk of the scripts had been turned in and were awaiting production when the light bulb moment hit. By engaging students in the production process, the experience itself could fascinate and infuse them with the intended Jewish content.

Demo-Version 2.0

2008-09-15T20:44:00.000-07:00

Starts at 0:10 seconds in...Enjoy!

You Know You're Making Progress When...

2008-09-12T16:28:00.001-07:00

It occurred to me about a month ago when I was in conversation with a music producer who manages several cutting-edge Jewish music acts that I am no longer involved in just a lone pipe dream.

We were trying to figure out how to record several artists/bands who are all based in NY in the most efficient way, and what it came down to was that he was going to book a gig at a club in San Francisco featuring all of the acts that I wanted to record. The gig would pay for the expense of them all flying out from NY to San Francisco, and then while they were here, we'd get them into a studio to record.

I said to myself, wow, a bunch of people are willing to fly across the country to be part of this, on spec that TorahVision may take off.

Either I'm crazy, and I've managed to rope a whole bunch of other people into my craziness, or this is the real deal.

Evolution of the Logo

2008-09-11T23:26:00.001-07:00

Thought I'd put this up-

way cool first version, but not as kid friendly as the final one...

Demo Thank You's (after G-d and my wife, no particular order of priority)

2008-09-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

G-d-for giving me a clear cut mission in life
Devorah-for being there, and at times, making sure the kids weren't
Jon Novich-mentor extraordinaire
Larry Shiver-mentor par excellance
the Brauns-voices, sound engineering, and confidantes
Jon Madof-great background scores for animations and segues in between segments
Mat Tonti-awesome character design for animation
Josh Alpert-Mr. Shabbos! he saw the shofar animation once, wrote a fantastic song about it on the fly, got into a recording studio in a week to record it, and history is made!
Vin Cin of Electric Plant Recording Studios in Brooklyn-for mixing and mastering the shofar song
Sruly Meyer-for the greatest logo design ever
Bill Olson-great actor (the weather man) and Alexander Technique teacher
Martin Handwerker-shofar sounds
Ben from Marin-for shooting the weather piece and designing the graphic
Brett at PBC Productions for knowing what to look for in videotaping the recording
Mike Fleming-West Coast Video Productions-the editor with the patience for my perfectionist streak
Power House Animation-these Austin boys know their cartoons
Rabbi K.-perused each script with a fine-tooth comb for accuracy
Guillaume Cohen-entrepenurial godfather
Silicon Valley SCORE-the best kept secret in every city; free business counselling for start-ups as often as you want it. These people are retired business exec's who will guide you through the ins and outs of starting your own business-special Todah Rabah to Elik Porat and Jack and Mary Davey
Steven Weiner-my legal compass
Katie Devorah Wampler-for keeping me on track with the business plan and generating leads
Maya Bernstein Silverman-for not being just another "yes" person
Mike Croog, Croog Studios-childhood friend and instant message animation consultant
The Jewish Study Network-for giving me the opportunity to teach Torah in the Bay Area and hone my pedagogical skills
Mom, Dad, Rachel and Alty, Mom and Dad Altschuler, Sam Frankel, Yaniv Natanov, Barry Susman-thanks for believing enough in "the project" to put your money into it

If I 've left anybody out, I'll probably remember soon and add your name to the list, so check back!

Zee Demo, She Eez Here

2008-09-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

Well, here it is-the latest version. Still needs some tweaking in a few places. Sent it down to LA today for some post-post production. But I thought I should at least give you a sneak peak...As always, comments are welcome.

Shomer....Shabbos

2008-09-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

One of the funnier anecdotes I have is when the long-haired production guy came down from Marin to shoot the weather piece in the shul library. This guy, from the time I contacted him to the time he was setting up the piece, gave me zero confidence he was going to come through for me.

First off, he gave me the lowest rate of anybody for the job, by less than half of what other people were charging, for the weather graphic and for a complicated green screen shoot. That's not even incorporating his travel and set up time, which amounted to probably ten extra hours.

Each time I called him to check the process of the graphic, he'd reply lazily into the phone, "Oh, yeah, I was just working on it right now." Which sounded like the biggest excuse in the world. He looked, walked and talked like a stoner, and I was sure I was going to get what I paid for.

Then, when he didn't show up at the 8:45pm call time, I expected to him to call me to tell me, "Oh, yeah, I'm on my way over there right now", and I'd have to wait till midnight for him, hours after my actor had already left.

But the funny thing is, he actually came through, almost better than anyone else who participated in the making of the demo (except maybe for Josh, the singer/songwriter). He was only 10 minutes late. The graphic is fantastic (you'll see for yourself soon), the shoot came out pristene, audio and video-wise. And he was sweet, polite, and did his job skillfully and professionally. Go figure.

The funniest part was about half way into the shoot, after the actor had done 10 takes already of the line, "...but the Mon would not fall on Shabbos", the guy looks up with his red eyes and his Pink Floyd t-shirt and goes, "Shabbos-yeah. Like in the Big Lebowski! Cool!"

(FYI-The Big Lebowski is a stoner cult-classic where John Goodman plays a guy who gets upset with his friends for not recognizing that he can't bowl on Saturday because he's shomer Shabbos-

"Saturday, Donny, is Shabbos, the Jewish day of rest. That means that I don't work, I don't get in a car, I don't ride in a car, I don't pick up the phone, I don't turn on the oven, and I sure [shouts] don't roll! Shomer shabbos!")

Another Pearl of Production Wisdom, or Two...

2008-09-03T08:04:00.000-07:00

It is absolutely imperative to remember that almost nobody will do things as fast as you requested them to do it, even if they agreed to a deadline, and even if they are being paid for it. And if they are artists, you can strike the word almost from the above statement.

You should not get frustrated or feel like a nudge when you have to ask the person repeatedly if they have finished (or in some cases, started) the task you gave them. You should already incorporate in your deadline enough room for you to be able to go back to them at least three times before you can expect anything from them.

Treat the third request of them as the first, and don't feel self-conscious at all about it. Even though it's the third time you asked them to do it, and in your mind you're thinking to yourself, "I hate the way I sound. I'm turning into a nag". Pretend in your interactions with the person as if there's no history between you two of the first couple of requests. No frustration. Just very matter of fact, "Hey, could you do this thing for me?" And eventually people will want to get you off their back and just do what they were supposed to do a few times ago.

Also, if you find competent, responsible people to work with, and they make an improvement upon what you had asked them to do, like a good creative suggestion, for e.g. over compensate that person. Show him/her that you really value their participation on the job, and hold on to them for dear life. Such people are hard to come by, and over time, they are worth their weight in gold.

Catching My Breath

2008-09-02T23:52:00.000-07:00

Holy cow! My mentor gave me a September 1st deadline by which to finish the new demo and my promotional brochure. This was something he suggested to me a year ago, before he was really my mentor, to get a mentor who will tie you down to certain milestones of accomplishment. Otherwise you can find yourself following all sorts of peripheral trips which you inflate with a sense of severe importance and urgency, when in reality, they're really just subconscious stall tactics that distance you from your real goals. In my case this took the form of spending an enormous amount of time and research on the business plan. He gave me a well-needed nudge and moved me along onto practical matters. G-d bless him and his family.

However, he didn't realize that the word deadline is very appropos for how I treat these types of things; I basically kill myself in the process. Many skipped meals, many 24 hour periods with 2 hr naps naps, all the while holding down a family and a day job. Well, September 2nd and the demo is COMPLETED! Hope to have it up on the blog soon for you to see. The brochure is looking like it's gonna come in a week behind schedule. In another post I will recount the tales of this month's whirlwind of production, but for now here are just a couple of pics I took. Notice the motif of long haired production people...

After all the back and forth with the revisions with the editor and the artists who were involved with the project, I can now fully justify the salary that producers receive. The sum total of all the parts of this new demo took, over the past year, at least 1000 hours of time to produce. There were e-mails, phone calls, just to give you an idea, I had to drive into San Francisco 3x this week just for editing purposes-all of this work to produce a 4.5 minute piece! And I still see things on it that I want to change....

I just wanted to jot down a few things I learned along the way, to remind myself for the next round of production, and for any would-be producers out there who can learn from my experiences:

a) whatever money you think you're gonna spend on a piece-take that number and double it. Then you won't be frustrated/disappointed when it comes out to more than what you thought it would be, which it ALWAYS does. (this was true of the recording of the shofar song, the video taping of the recording of the shofar song, the weather piece, and the cost of the editing)

b)however long you think it'll take to produce a piece-take that number and double it (see letter a, above).

c) if you have a family, it is best to work away from home, and then when you come home, be at home. That way you will not feel that they are a constant pull on your time and energies, and you will be able to appreciate them as your number one priority, which they are. You will still get to do what you love, you will not be a slave to your work, and your family will appreciate you more when they see you are there for them. Remember: you can be extremely successful if you devote all of your time to your art, but you will be extremely lonely when you look up and realize that the people you love and who love you are not around anymore to share in your success.

Busy Producing...

2008-08-24T22:40:00.001-07:00

I know I'm in a good place, momentum-wise, when I don't have time to record my progress with the project on this blog. It's been a very busy month. Produced a song to accompany the "alarm clock" shofar piece this week. It fits so well with the theme of the piece, is such a catchy tune, and is musically fantastic (it just occured to me that this last phrase has the same cadence as "magically delicious"). Well, got to get back to work. I have to figure out a way to upload it for you to play the chorus of the song with the shofar piece and see if you don't agree with what I just wrote. Tried gabcast.com but wasn't user friendly enough for me to work with.

TorahVision Needs You!

2008-07-04T01:21:00.000-07:00

Welcome to TorahVision.org's blog, the homebase for the development and production of an entertaining animated series on the topic of the mitzvot. Click here to see our 1 minute demo on the practice and meaning behind the mitzvah of shofar (click on the piece entitled “hollow” first), and then challenge yourself afterwards with the fun, interactive quiz here.

The series is being geared towards 2nd-5th graders of all Jewish backgrounds. If you've got kids this age, please show it to them and leave your comments on this blog. And use the little envelope link at the end of this post to forward the clip to your friends with kids. Your feedback will help us develop the best possible product for them.

While you're here, please consider making a tax deductible contribution to TorahVision. Your tzedakah will go directly towards the production of individal segments on the topic of the mitzvot and be seen by tens and thousands of viewers; it's a chance to spread Jewish education the world over. And it's a cool cause: you can tell your friends that you help produce educational animation for a cutting-edge website for Jewish children!

We are currently recruiting for the following creative positions, if you know of people who might fit the bill, please use the little envelope link at the end of this post to forward the post to them:

Writers: follow this link for script sample and guidelines. If you are more of an idea person than a writer, don't let that discourage you from submitting-we'll write the script ourselves and compensate you for any ideas of yours we end up using in the final product.

Voice actors: if you can do interesting and varied voices well, drop us a line with some samples.

Artists: can you read a funny cartoon script and design characters and backgrounds for the animators to work off of? Click here for samples.

Puppeteers, Digital Video Producers, Singers/Songwriters: in subsequent rounds of production we will be enlisting talented artists of all media to further TorahVision's mission of conveying entertaining and relevant Torah lessons.

We are also looking for passionately idealistic professionals to serve as advisors to TorahVision...

Children's Educational Consultants: We want to know how kids learn in order to produce content that teaches them in the most effective way possible.

Jewish Educational Technology Visionaries: Can you see the forest and not just the trees? Do you see more than one way to implement TorahVision's content, at home and in the schools, in the classroom and at computer labs? Do you see the vast potential in the variety of emerging technological platforms like mobile viewers and Second Life and do you understand how it can improve the state of Jewish education today? We need you.

And last but not least, we need help with...

Business Development: Show us how to make multiple streams of revenue, for e.g. through licensing rights to merchandising, like what Sesame Street does, putting the money back into production.

Join us and make the TorahVision a reality!

Which comes first, the market or the product?

2008-07-02T01:12:00.000-07:00

The more that I thought about my comments in Part XXVIII about the non-existent Conservative/Reform/Unaffiliated market, I wondered, can I really point a finger and blame them for their lack of demand? Maybe their lack of demand is due to the fact that there is nothing on the market worth buying. Maybe if there was a quality product for sale, they would demand it. But where do you get the money to create a good enough product for a market that doesn't exist? I'm getting dizzy trying to catch my tail...

The TV Story Part XXXI

2008-06-16T23:23:00.000-07:00

I also need writers. Thus far, I've been writing everything myself. At this point I'm just too busy and don't have the head space to keep on cranking out new scripts. And I am sure that TorahVision can only benefit from a collaborative effort. The model is: there are bullet points of information that I will give you that need to be conveyed on each topic. For e.g. for the segment of Kiddush on Shabbos, the salient information is:

what the word means (unique/special),
how Kiddush is recited (standing and with a cup of wine/grape juice),
that it is a testimony to fact that G-d created the world in 6 days and rested on the 7th.
it is a commemoration of the Exodus from Egypt.

You need to take this information and create a not too elaborate script (i.e. a few pages at most and not too much action-in animation, action=money), conveying these points in a clever, entertaining way.

Below is my script on the mitzvah of Kiddush.

KIDDUSH

OPEN ON: WINE BEING POURED INTO KIDDUSH CUP

NARRATOR: It is now time to recite Kiddush. The word “Kiddush” means special.

GRAPHIC AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN: “KIDDUSH=SPECIAL”

NARRATOR: It is called “Kiddush” because we take something ordinary, like wine or grape juice…

KIDDUSH CUP IS TAKEN IN HAND AND LIFTED UP

NARRATOR: and turn it into something special…

BEAM OF LIGHT SHINES THROUGH CLOUDS ONTO KIDDUSH CUP IN HAND

NARRATOR: by using it to proclaim that G-d created the world in six days and on the 7th He rested.

CUT TO: EXT OF COURTHOUSE

SFX: BANGING OF GAVEL

JUDGE: (O.S.) All rise…

SFX: CHAIRS MOVING ACROSS COURTROOM FLOOR

DISSOLVE TO: INT. COURTHOUSE. MAN WITH KIPPA STANDING AT WITNESS STAND WITH KIDDUSH CUP IN HAND

NARRATOR: That is why it is recited while standing, because we are like witnesses testifying in a court of law that G-d created the world.

JUDGE: Go ahead.

MAN (chanting): Va’yachulu HaShamayim…

COURT INTERPRETER: And He completed the Heavens and the earth and all their legions on the 7th day…

CUT TO: STENOGRAPHER TYPING AWAY. SHE LISTENS ATTENTIVELY AND SLOWLY TAPERS OFF HER TYPING, THEN STOPS ALTOGETHER.

JUDGE: Court reporter, you’re neglecting your duties!

STENOGRAPHER: I’m sorry, your Honor, but if the witness is right and the world has a Creator who rested on the 7th day, I want to rest on Shabbat, too.

CUT TO: JURY APPLAUDING.

SFX: BANGING OF GAVEL

JUDGE: Order, Order! Witness, continue.

CUT BACK TO MAN: Ki Hu Yom T’chilah…Zecher L’Yitziat Mitzrayim…

NARRATOR: The second part of Kiddush recalls the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt.

JUDGE IS HANDED ENVELOPE THAT IS MARKED “EXHIBIT A”

DISSOLVE TO: PHOTOGRAPHS OF SPLITTING OF RED SEA AND JEWS CROSSING.

NARRATOR: By mentioning the Exodus, we are proclaiming that G-d controls all of nature and He even breaks nature’s laws when He sees fit.

MAN CONCLUDES KIDDUSH AND EVERYONE ANSWERS “AMEN”. HE SITS DOWN. A COURT DEPUTY PASSES AROUND LITTLE CUPS OF WINE TO EVERYBODY.

JUDGE BANGS GAVEL

JUDGE: Case closed. I’m hungry, let’s wash our hands and make Ha’motzi.

The TV Story Part XXX

2008-06-16T21:31:00.000-07:00

I am primarily a writer who is trying to use my gifts of imagination and humor to teach Torah lessons. I have a strong desire to see my creations produced, and I've got a passion for this project that has emboldened me to ask people for money for it. But I feel like I've taken this project as far as I can through my own personal efforts.I feel the project has a greater scope than I can see from my vantage point.

I sense there's something greater beyond the horizon than just a Jewish version of brainpop.com. With all of the new technology being innovated, like Second Life, mobile viewers, etc. the sky's no longer the limit as to the number of ways to design and implement the content and how far it can reach.I also feel that we could develop something along the lines of Sesame Street. There could be a whole battalion of collaborators all idealistically pooling their talents to teach Torah concepts and messages; writers, artists, celebrities, animators, puppeteers, digital video producers, songwriters, teachers, and educational researchers who understand how children learn. You get the idea. And following the Sesame Street model, popular recurring characters could be created whom kids could identify with and merchandising rights could then be licensed to provide revenue to put back into production.

And this thing beyond the horizon has to do with the current state of the Jewish educational system as well. There are some big issues that have gone unresolved for too long; a prehistoric curriculum devoid of any technologically-relevant educational resources, the underqualified teachers, the miniscule budgets and low salaries which cannot sustain qualified teachers, the current methods of teaching, the embarrassingly slow rate at which technology has been introduced into Jewish classrooms, and the frustration of parents with the ever rising cost of tuition.What I need is someone (s) who can see the forest and understand where TorahVision fits into all of this and help me direct my and my team's creative efforts towards making TorahVision make the biggest impact as possible.

The TV Story Part XXIX

2008-06-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

So about a year and several months later, where am I? Well, we've got a logo, and the business plan is nearly complete. TorahVision is fiscally sponsored and can receive grant money and tax deductible contributions while it awaits approval of its own not-for-profit status by the IRS. We've got a grant writer, a business and educational advisory board, an animation studio, a musical director, a sound engineer, an artist to do character development, a Torah scholar to guarantee content accuracy, and a network of teachers from all branches of Judaism in order to ensure that the segments retain crossover appeal (i.e. they don't come off as too frum or not frum enough).In the next few posts, I will tell you what roles we still need to fill, and invite you (or anyone talented you might know of who fits the bill) to come on board and join the TorahVision.

The TV Story Part XXVIII

2008-06-16T13:10:00.000-07:00

The one thing that keeps eating at me is the non-existent market for the Conservative/Reform/Unaffiliated consumer.

The Orthodox market is very small, but it is alive and well. New Jewish video products are being created each year for this market, and the sales are steady and consistent. The primary reason for this phenomenon is that Orthodox parents by and large disdain the secular content currently available on the market, and left with no alternative, they will buy Jewish video products for their kids (despite the embarrassingly low production quality) because it provides a benign distraction for their kids and, at best, instills some Jewish values in them while they're watching.

(The reason for the low-rent quality of these items is two-fold:

a) a bulk of the producers of Jewish media are notoriously untalented. This is not just the case in regards to video, it has also (traditionally, things are slowly starting to improve) been the case by Jewish books, magazines, and newspapers as well. It bothers me to my core that my wife and kids have to resort to secular materials because they find the Jewish ones unreadable/watchable. The success of these media can only be attributed to the fact that they are the only game in town.

b) it's very expensive to produce decent quality media, and the Orthodox market is too small for even talented producers to sustain the overhead and still net a profit.)

But the other market segment, what I call "the Conservative/Reform/Unaffiliated" does not share the same sentiments towards the secular media. I am sure they are not fans of it, and if they thought about it long enough (as a minority of them do), they'd get rid of their TV sets and cut their kids off from the sex, violence, and bad messages that permeate the secular media today. But they don't. So anything Jewish that their kids would agree to watch would have to be as compelling as what they allow their kids to see in movies and on the Disney and Nickelodeon channels, which is astronomically expensive to produce.

That would not be a problem, if there was a market for such products. There are five million Jews in the US, if 1/50th of them (100,000-this is a realistic number, being that around 200,000 kids from all different branches of Judaism are enrolled in formal Jewish education) would spend $20 on a Jewish media product, there would be a way to produce a quality product. Disney is alive and well despite the fact that a movie like "A Shark's Tale" cost them $70,000,000 to make. If there's a market, there's a way. Why is there no market? Because these parents lack the commitment to instill Judaism in their kids outside the limited hours of the Judaic studies program in their day school or after-school Hebrew classes.

They are to be commended for the significance they attach to a Jewish education by spending the extra tuition money. But the commitment starts and ends with the tuition check. This is why, despite all of the breakthroughs in technology, for e.g. digital video, there still has not been a single new release appropriate for the Conservative/Reform market since the Rugrats Chanukah/Passover specials in 1998! That is ten years! And the reason is simple: because there's just no interest, read "commitment in the form of a willingness to pay for anything Jewish other than tuition and a bar/bas mitzvah", on the part of the parents of this market segment.

This is depressing and makes me wonder why I should knock myself out creating something that can still appeal to them if they're not interested anyways. But in my heart of hearts something tells me that they need it, possibly more than anybody, and if I can create a product that's decent in quality, I stand a chance of getting through to them.

The TV Story Part XXVII

2008-06-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

My main oversight with the quiz is that the wrong answers are too obviously wrong. There is not much scholastic virtue to the quiz, being that the right answers are too easy to identify. But the production value is there and I think it's got a fun feel to it. A major improvement from the last demo.

The TV Story Part XXVI

2008-06-16T12:47:00.000-07:00

I think my main oversight here was with the second piece, the alarm one. There seems to be too big of a leap between the action of the kid being woken up from his (spiritual) slumber by the sound of the shofar, and him now being engaged in good deeds. I'm not sure if young viewers will be able to make the connection-that as a result of hearing of the shofar, the boy was stirred to do good deeds like wheeling an old man down the street.

Check out the quiz that the studio produced to accompany the demo.

The TV Story Part XXV

2008-06-16T00:29:00.000-07:00

The new demo consists of two pieces: one illustrating a practical aspect of the mitzvah, and the other conveying some meaning behind it. You'll see that the demo is parve enough so as not to turn off non-observant viewers (the characters don't have yarmulkes or beards, and the Hebrew is spoken in the modern Hebrew sephardit dialect), yet at the same time it teaches something novel that most young observant viewers are probably unaware of; i.e. what the word "shofar" means (hollow) and its implications (that only animals whose horns are hollow are kosher for the mitzvah of shofar).

Ok, so you've waited long enough. Here's the shofar demo. Follow the link and then click on the choice labeled "hollow".

The TV Story Part XXIV

2008-06-16T00:14:00.000-07:00

Although the content I'm producing is for 2nd-5th graders, and I've spent many years in yeshivos and various batei midrash, it was still always a concern of mine to have the content of my scripts checked for accuracy. This is especially pertinent when it comes to animation, which is so expensive and once produced, extremely difficult to change. So it was a great accomplishment for me to obtain the services of the Rosh Kollel of a prestigious kollel in Yerushalayim who agreed to review each script with a fine toothed comb, to ensure that all the information was accurate before production commenced.

During the production of the demo, a friend of a friend contacted me who had heard about the project. He's a Jewish NYC guitarist and composer who has done some extensive work in the scene and he wanted to compose music for the cartoons. I didn't envision the segments needing anything besides voices and sound effects, but he was eager to collaborate so I sent him the animatics of the demo and he came up with some background music that added a very nice touch to the short. He is very talented, extremely professional, and takes direction very well. I highly recommend him.

My good friend supplied the voice of the narrator and the security guard in the new demo. He is also the voice behind the British limo driver and the rhinoceros in the quiz, and his wife's voice prominently features in the quiz as well. My friend also acted as chief sound engineer for the demo; I sent a guy to his house one morning to be recorded blowing shofar, and we spent 6 hours one night recording the lines for the demo and the quiz in his apartment. This demo was a real homegrown effort.

But slowly, a team was falling into place.

The TV Story Part XXIII

2008-06-15T21:00:00.000-07:00

The current distribution model I have been working with is an e-learning website, possibly by subscription, for elementary school-aged Jewish children. The site would be built around these series of entertaining, Flash-animated cartoons depicting the mitzvos and Jewish holidays, something like a Jewish version of the secular e-learning website brainpop.com, just with better animation and more entertaining content. The site would also feature engaging quizzes
to encourage kids to assess themselves after viewing each cartoon.

TorahVision would also function as a portal, directing its visitors to areas where they can continue their learning through external content such as video clips and helpful images and texts.

I secured a studio to produce one minute of the shofar script as a demo for $1200, which was a discounted rate based on the possibility that I might end up using them in the future to produce several hours worth of animation. I also hired them to create a quiz for $400, which would accompany the demo.

Additionally, the studio had produced some very high caliber games for popular children's websites that they could revamp for a few thousand dollars each to impart Torah themes. For e.g. there is a popular version of the "Whack-a-Mole" game going around featuring George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. That could be retooled to substitute a Jewish villian like Pharoh or Haman.

SCORE counselors are fond of quoting an old favorite phrase of business people: your initial start-up money usually comes from the "three F's"; friends, family, and fools. I was successful in raising $5000 from the first two F's. I just hope that TorahVision doesn't flop, in which case the first two F's and the last F would, by default, end up intersecting.

The TV Story Part XXII

2008-06-15T10:57:00.001-07:00

I felt as if I had burned out the animator who did the earlier bishul demo; it was his first attempt at animation and although he really pulled his weight, I think that he bit off more than he could chew and killed himself to honor his contract with me. And I didn't see him working at such a low rate again. Additionally, I really wanted to secure a studio because for the larger scope of the project, I couldn't afford to work at such a slow pace. I suppose that I could have outsourced to several individual animators, but I wanted there to be an overall uniformity of style to the content; with too many animators I was afraid that the segments would look slapped together and disjointed. So I set about finding a studio that could produce the demo and that would ultimately be able to produce the rest of the content in a relatively short amount of time when the funding would come through.

So for the next month I sifted through countless online portfolios of animation studios, searching for the right studio that could replicate the style I was aiming for, and the manpower to take on the 3-4 hours of animation I was looking to produce for round 1.

In the meantime, I also reconnected with the artist who I originally had pegged to do the storyboards for the bishul demo, but who was unavailable at the time. This time around he was free, and he did some great initial character design for me that managed to make it into the new demo. Here are some screenshots:

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The TV Story Part XXI

2008-06-15T10:42:00.000-07:00

Now that I was changing gears, the original demo was unusable for the current model of content. That meant that I needed to write a script and produce a new demo, one which would demonstrate to the viewer exactly what I was trying to accomplish with my project. I was all out of money, but I forged ahead anyways with the free part of the project, which was the writing. Here's the first draft of a script for the mitzvah of shofar. I picked shofar because I felt that it was a mitzvah that every branch of Judaism identified with; even the non-observant have a soft feeling in their hearts for the holiday of Rosh HaShanah and going to shul to hearing the blowing of the shofar. This way, the actual content of the demo itself would reflect the crossover appeal between the different branches of Judaism that I was aiming to achieve.

FADE UP : to sun rising over Jerusalem

MUSIC UP: to well known Rosh HaShanah song (e.g. Avinu Malkeinu), underneath music is

SHOFAR SFX (maybe with a V.O. calling out sounds O.S.)

NARRATOR: It is the morning of Rosh HaShanah, and Jewish people all over the world gather in synagogues…

DISSOLVE TO: montage of various synagogue exteriors

NARRATOR CONT’D: to hear the sound of the shofar being blown.

DISSOLVE TO: int. synagogue interior, men gathered round bimah for shofar blowing

DISSOLVE TO: animals on a mountain top

NARRATOR: A shofar is the hollowed out horn of an animal….

CLOSE UP: ON RAM

NARRATOR CONT’D: usually a ram.

CUT TO: SHOFAR, with word spelled out in Hebrew underneath

NARRATOR: The word “shofar” means hollow. Only animals whose horns are hollow are kosher to be used for the mitzvah of shofar.

DISSOLVE TO: airport security check, animals walk thru x-ray machine during below V.O., as they pass, a green light blinks and flashes “kosher”

NARRATOR: This includes goats, rams, antelope, and gazelles. Other animals such as buffalo, for e.g., who don't have hollow horns, just a solid bone protruding from their head, may not be used.

SFX: buzzer sounds

SECURITY (O.S.) : Please step over here sir.

CUT TO: COW

NARRATOR: A calf’s horn, even though it is hollow, may not be used for the mitzvah of shofar. This is because on Rosh HaShanah we don't want to remind G-d of our past mistakes, like the sin of the golden calf.

CUT TO: GOLDEN CALF

NARRATOR: The best type of horn to use is a ram’s horn

CUT TO: RAM

NARRATOR: This reminds G-d of the good things we've done, like Avraham, who was willing to offer his son to G-d……

CUT TO: BINDING OF ISAAC SCENE

NARRATOR CONT’D: but was told to sacrifice a ram instead.

DISSOLVE TO: FRUSTRATED RAM, CAUGHT IN BUSHES

RAM: This is just dandy. A fine way to spend the afternoon….Uh oh. Upgrade from code orange to a code red.

DISSOLVE TO: GRAPHIC “30 BLASTS”

NARRATOR: In order to make sure that the mitzvah is fulfilled properly, it is necessary to hear 30 blasts of the shofar. These 30 blasts are made up of three types of sounds which we will now demonstrate for you.

CUT TO: SHOFAR BLOWER, DRESSED IN WHITE, STANDING NEXT TO CALLER

NARRATOR: The first sound is called “tekia”, a long straight blast.

CALLER: Tekia.

GRAPHIC: AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN READS “TEKIA”

SHOFAR BLOWER BLOWS DIRECTLY INTO CALLER’S EAR. HE SEEMS ONLY MILDLY DISTURBED.

NARRATOR: Next is the “shevarim”-three short blasts.

GRAPHIC: AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN READS “SHEVARIM”

CALLER: “Shevarim”.

SHOFAR BLOWER BLOWS DIRECTLY INTO CALLER’S EAR. AGAIN, HE SEEMS ONLY MILDLY DISTURBED.

NARRATOR: And the “teruah”, which is a short broken blast.

GRAPHIC: AT BOTTOM OF SCREEN READS “TERUAH”

CALLER: “Teruah”.

SHOFAR BLOWER BLOWS DIRECTLY INTO CALLER’S EAR. CALLER BLINKS HIS EYES A FEW TIMES, THEN TAKES EARPLUGS OUT OF HIS EARS.

NARRATOR: The shofar blowing is concluded with a “tekia gedolah”, a final drawn-out “tekia”, which continues as long as possible. The record for the longest tekia gedola is held by Sheldon Von Boom Boom of Hohokus, NJ. He began blowing two Rosh HaShanahs ago…and is still going.

CUT TO: GUY ON FLOOR, FLOPPING AROUND LIKE A FISH, BLUE IN THE FACE AND BLOWING SHOFAR WEAKLY.

NARRATOR: The sound of the shofar on Rosh HaShanah is meant to be a wake-up call.

DISSOLVE TO: PERSON ASLEEP IN HIS BED, SNORING LOUDLY. DIGITAL ALARM CLOCK BLINKS “ROSH HASHANAH”

NARRATOR CONT’D: It sounds an alarm to remind us that life is precious...

DOOR OPENS AND SHOFAR BLOWER ENTERS, BLOWS SHOFAR AND WAKES GUY UP, HE HITS THE CEILING.

NARRATOR CONT’D: …. and that we should always try to become the best that we can be.

DISSOLVE TO: GUY WHO WAS JUST ASLEEP, NOW ENGAGED IN GOOD DEEDS.

The TV Story Part XX

2008-06-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

One Saturday night, a colleague of mine called me up to chat and asked me to relay the project idea to him. I had actually discussed it with him once before, but I always relished the opportunity to retell it, because a) it further solidified the project in my mind and made me more confident about it, b) if there were any blind spots or areas where I had been lazy about it they would usually come to surface during the course of the conversation, and c) I'd often receive valuable insights and suggestions about the project. Tonight's conversation would yield fruits in the third category and ultimately take the project in a whole different direction.

In a nutshell, what my friend suggested was that instead of focusing on the limited appeal of halacha (and the even more narrow appeal of hilchos bishul) I should create content on the topic of the mitzvos.

First off, mitzvos are studied by all ages (in various depths), unlike hilchos bishul which is covered briefly in some schools in 7th and 8th grade, and then not again until post-high school, in yeshivos and seminaries. Also, mitzvos are studied by Jews of all backgrounds; every Jewish curriculum of every branch of Judaism incorporates a study of the mitzvos.

(Even non-observant Jews study the mitzvos associated with the Jewish calendar, for e.g. Kiddush on Shabbos and the mitzvos of the other Jewish holidays, like blowing shofar, dwelling in the Sukkah, the Passover Seder, etc. They study the ritual mitzvos, like tefillah, tallis, mezuzah, etc. They learn the lifecycle mitzvos, the ones associated with birth, marriage, and death. They cover the mitzvos which govern the behavior between Man and his neighbor; charity, acts of kindness, returning lost items, respect for parents, honoring the elderly, etc. And then there are all the various laws of the Torah, like setting the mother bird free before taking its young, letting the Land of Israel lie fallow in the Sabbatical year, etc.)

True, in order to produce content that would simultaneously appeal to Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, and unaffiliated Jews would be a real challenge. On the one hand, I'd have to leave out anything that could be perceived as threatening or might come into conflict with a non-observant viewer's lifestyle, and at the same time not condescend to the already observant viewer; they'd have to identify with the tone of the content and also find something fresh about it that they were previously unaware of. A fine line to walk.

But I felt up to the challenge. During my years in educational outreach, I've had to develop content for classes where the class members spanned the entire spectrum of Judaism. And I've always managed to find ways to incorporate something that everyone can gain from. So I figured it was a safe bet to build the content based on the material I found success with during these years.

It made a lot of sense. There would be enough content here to keep me busy for a lifetime of production. I could develop a single series just on the practice and meaning behind the mitzvot of each holiday. And by changing the subject matter, it would widen the scope of the target audience, increase the sales revenue, and (hopefully) guarantee continued rounds of production.

My only reservations were a) it felt like selling out. In order to still appeal to the non-observant segment of the market, I'd be spending my life producing watered down content, and b) I'd be a producer of children's content, like 2nd-5th graders. I never envisioned my life's work being focused on little kids.

But the more that I thought about it, those were not such big issues. In explaining the practice of each mitzvah, I could slip in halacha under the viewer's radar without them ever realizing it. This is something I learned during my year's in outreach. You can say to someone, "The traditional way to observe this mitzvah is to first pick up the esrog with your right hand, upside down, so as not to fulfill the mitzvah of the four species before you have a chance to make the blessing." People do not reject this information; on the contrary, I've found that they actually have a respect for it and are curious to learn about the nuances of a mitzvah's observance. So despite the change of content, I'd still be kept busy researching the halachic details of the observance of each mitzvah, and I could find contentment in the fact that I'd be representing the subject of the mitzvos to Jewish kids, observant and non-observant with the full integrity of our mesorah.

The other issue, about being a children's producer, was also not the end of the world. I had to be realistic: who was the audience that was going to watch my cartoons anyways? Would 7th and 8th graders sit and watch cartoons on the subject of halacha? Could they be expected to get excited about them? At that age (and certainly post-high school age) kids are past watching cartoons. Cartoons, on the whole, are for younger kids. If I wanted to make cartoons and reach people, well, 2nd-5th grade kids was the age of the audience they had a chance of reaching. And to instill a love of learning Torah and mitzvah observance in little kids was not such a small accomplishment either. It is said that Rabbi Yaakov Kamenetsky, in his later years when his photographic mind started to go on him, remarked, "The only thing that stays with you is what you learned when you were a child." So, the next generation of senile adults would be left remembering the TorahVision cartoons they watched as kids. Nisht gefeirlach.

Mitzvos, here we come!

The TV Story Part XIX

2008-06-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

I started to get caught up in the whirlwind business side of the project. Now I fancied myself not just an artist, but also an entrepreneur. I was reading Inc., I began writing a business plan. I was doing serious market research, contacting industry professionals, keeping tabs on the competition. I even came up with some very clever ways to obtain market data. For e.g. I was banging my head against the wall trying to figure out how to come up with some accurate #'s of people who buy Jewish products, books, CD's. DVD's etc. in order to project how many customers I could garner, and short of calling around the USA, I was coming up empty. And then I stumbled upon a brilliant method. There are direct marketing lists which sell you the names of the buyers of these products, but they give away the # of them for free! What a metziah!

Despite the fact that I consider myself an intovert, I started talking to everyone in hopes that it would lead me in the direction of progress with the project. And whereas before if I didn't understand something someone said to me, or I hadn't heard them properly, I'd just nod and continue the conversation for fear of looking dumb, now I'd find myself interrupting my conversations and asking people to explain themselves or repeat the information until I got it. I'd ask someone what he/she did for a living, and when they'd say for e.g. "an intellectual property lawyer", I'd think to myself, that might come in handy when I need to negotiate contracts with artists and distribution companies. I'm sure I became somewhat of a windbag, but I never tired of talking about it. Like I said, this was my baby, and sometimes parents like to talk about their kids even though nobody else likes to hear about them.

Essentially what I was doing was some major networking, but it was a funny thing, because it didn't feel like it. It was the most natural thing in the world to talk to people about the project and follow the leads that each conversation generated. I found that much of the business advice I'd read on websites I had been already doing all along without even realizing it.

And I came to the conclusion that this project became one of the greatest gifts in my life that G-d could have given me, for two main reasons. The first was the more obvious, it was finally a way to synthesize my love of Torah and the creative side of me that had been yearning all my life to be expressed appropriately and anchored to something eternal.

The second was that it was making my personality blossom. All of the doubts and insecurities I had about myself, the lack of motivation, the inhibitions and the fear of interacting with new people, the self-imposed limits I had long ago submitted to-they were all vanishing into thin air under the intense, focused light of my project. It was amazing to me that I could have one way of looking at myself for a good portion of my life, and then have it all be negated by realizing that I just didn't have a real goal to live for. I didn't have any of the above character defects, I was just umotivated to put myself out for someone else's dream. And here's where I quote Tony Robbins again, because it sums up everything in one succinct sentence, "There are no unmotivated people, there are only people with unclear goals."

This post would be incomplete without a mention of a personality whom I found much inspiration in during this process, and that is Matisyahu. I have to say, when I first came across him, I rejected him out of hand completely. I thought he was a novelty act and while everyone around me was oohing and ahhing about him, I was not interested in the slightest.

And then my brother in law gave me an mp3 player loaded with "Youth" on it and that changed everything. The music was incredible. Reggae/hip-hop with kosher lyrics! I never liked Jewish music but I always felt conflicted listening to non-Jewish music because the messages were antithetical to my values. But I felt that this music came from a very pure place and I could listen with a clear conscience. It also did not seem contrived or forced. The music seemed to flow naturally, which was amazing to me because Matisyahu had integrated his past (the reggae music culture he grew up on) and his present (his observance and love of G-d) SEAMLESSLY. He did not compromise himself on either front. He took what meant the most to him, the style of music he loved playing, and he used it to express exactly who he was now, with full pride and no self-consciousness.

And that is something I've always been trying to do ever since I became religious again. I've been trying to figure out how to find the right outlet for my creativity; something that would utilize the craftsmanship of the world of humor, style and flair that I've always admired, and anchor it to something eternal. And I found that in this project. So besides the fact that I totally dug Matisyahu's music; finally I could listen to music with Torah messages without my ears rejecting it, I felt a sort of soul-bond with Matisyahu. And his music lifted me up ("lift it up, lift it up") and carried me through the hard parts of the process. Thanks Matis.

The TV Story Part XVIII

2008-06-13T14:31:00.000-07:00

I had not originally concieved the project as a financial venture. It was more a hobby and a labor of love. But the more I thought about it, it made sense for me to make this my livelihood. First off, it was an enormous amount of effort. To try to work one job just for money and another for love seemed an exercise in futility if there was money to be made doing what I love. Secondly, it's the greatest gift in the world to be able to do what you love for a living. Not everybody gets to do it, but if there's a shot at it, why shouldn't I take it?

The book "Free Money to Quit your Job" that had steered me in the direction of grant money to fund the project mentioned another fantastic resource, SCORE. SCORE is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs. They offer FREE business counseling from retired executives (that's the RE part of SCORE) and assist with all phases of the formation of small business start-ups. You can contact them through your local Chamber of Commerce. So in early November of '07, I started to meet with them regularly to take the project to the next level.

The way it works is that you meet with two counselors at a time, and they work in rotation. So you rarely meet the same counselors at subsequent meetings. What this meant, practically, was that every time I'd meet with them (on the average of about once a month), I'd have to start all over from scratch and pitch the idea anew to two new counselors and sell them on it. And these are not "yes" people. I know this for a fact because I did not really have much faith in the business side of my idea, so I had originally approached them about a different business idea which, in my mind, was much more solid than the animation project. I was going to use the last 10 minutes of the meeting to bring up the animation idea as an aside. And they shot down the other idea within 30 seconds of my bringing it up from many various angles. So I told them about the project and they were charmed.

And for the next several months, time and time again, I managed to sell these seasoned business people on an idea that I had previously just fancied a pipe dream. But if they thought it was viable, who was I to argue?

The TV Story Part XVII

2008-06-13T14:12:00.000-07:00

Around Sukkos time of '07, I ran into a veteran TV editor from LA. I told him about the project and he was intrigued by the idea of using his skills for a greater good. We began to correspond regularly by phone and e-mail, and not only was he always there for me to bounce ideas off of, but he’d even call me at all times of the day with valuable insights and suggestions of his own based on his experience in the entertainment industry. He began to become one TorahVision’s biggest fans.

As the project gained momentum, it occurred to me that I was no longer in dream phase. It was starting to become as real as I was willing to put in the effort for it to become. This was an exhilarating feeling, and a bit scary at the same time. Until I decided to take responsibility for the project, it seemed like I was up against some force of fate that would or would not let it be successful. It wasn't really up to me. So I'd do as much as I felt like doing and if it didn't work in the end, well, it was always destined not to work. The proof was that not everyone who puts in gargantuan efforts always makes it. But I began to realize that, yes, while success is not entirely up to me, failure was. So I'd act as if it was entirely up to me and hope for the best.

The TV Story Part XVI

2008-06-13T14:02:00.000-07:00

The project began to attract a following. First, I told an acquaintance in my community about the idea one night in the shul parking lot and we ended up talking for several hours about it. He started to mentor me and raise my sights higher and farther than I could currently see, sending me off in different directions-networking, educational research, marketing, and development. Whenever I’d hit an impasse, I’d call him up and tell him I was stuck and I’d bring over some cake and Starbuck’s and we’d work through the block together. My scope was so myopic at the time, I just wanted to produce clever, funny cartoons on the topic of halacha. I didn’t really care, or more accurately, I was too lazy to put in the effort to do things like identify the target audience and ensure that my product would be appropriately geared towards it. I fancied myself an artist and banked on the notion that if what I wrote and produced was good enough, everything else would fall into place. My mentor assured me that this was a foolhardy way to go about things. And since this was my baby, I decided to make the efforts to nurture it and make sure that if it didn't achieve what I hoped it would, it would be through no fault of my own.

The TV Story Part XV

2008-06-13T00:31:00.000-07:00

I had sunk around 1000$ into the demo, which was a pretty low sum considering what I got for it. The thing was, I could not expect to sustain the animator at that low rate, and what was more, I could not afford to have him work at a pace of a few minutes every few months. What I really needed was money to hire an animation studio to do the job. So I started to a) think of ways to get money, and b) find an appropriate studio.

Around this time my mom bought a chinese vase for $1.98 with her senior citizen discount at Goodwill and sold it on e-bay for $14,000. It's the kind of thing that happens to 1% of the world 1% of the time, but it encouraged me, so I started hauling home all this trash from Goodwill; t-shirts, bobbleheads, mugs, etc. I managed to sell one thing. Later I found out that it was my mom who bought it from me. G-d bless her, but this was not a long-term plan for raisng money for the project. Then I got this book out from the library called, "Free money to quit your job". In it, the author itemizes all of these grants and foundations that offer money to people in education, and I realized that I, too, probably qualified for some free money.

In regards to studios, I narrowed down a few really good ones but they were all out of my budget. But the more I thought about it, even the guy who charged me $500 was outside my budget. I didn't have a budget, I had a vision. So I started to think as if money was no object. This is what Tony Robbins, my self-help guru calls "Limitation Disengage"-what would you do if you knew you couldn't fail? What difference does it make if I have to raise $60,000 or $300,000? In both cases I'm starting out from scratch. The whole thing's up in the air. I might as well just dream large and get excited about what I'm setting out to produce. That way I'll at least be in a resourceful state in order to raise even the first dollar.

So I started to dream large. I closed out all of the negative messages my mind was trying to give me-messages like "it'll never work, you won't raise the money, nobody will get anything out of it, it's waste of time, it's too hard to complete, etc." I really had to ignore the voices and just plod ahead, knowing somehow that this was what I was meant to be doing, even if it temporarily did not make sense. I spent countless late night hours at the computer, writing, editing, doing market research, searching for artists and money sources. And while I worked, I listened on my headphones to music that I grew up with, music that brought me back to a space where I felt that the world was my oyster and that I could accomplish anything I wanted to. It had been a long time since I felt that way, and that is what I needed to pull me through more than ever now. I needed "The Power of Love".

The TV Story Part XIV

2008-06-12T23:43:00.000-07:00

What was initially supposed to take 4 weeks ended up taking around 8. I wasn't so concerned because I was getting a good deal, and I felt like if I was forgiving on the deadline, it would buy me more wriggling room on the revision end, which was important to me. Since this was my first forray into animation, I didn't really know how things would turn out when I'd see the final product brought to life, but I expected I'd want to fine tune some things afterwards and I wanted the set a tone of goodwill in anticipation of this. Here's the final product. In order to edit it down with some test software, I needed to change the format from SWF to WMV, so the quality isn't as brilliant as the original Flash, but it gets the message across.

A year later, it's tough for me to watch without cringing. The style and the voices are great, but boy does it drag. The continuity of the opening sequence is very rough, and what was originally supposed to be a clever aside to illustrate the concept of "ma'achel ben derusai"ended up taking up so much time that when you come out of the restaurant scene, it's hard to remember what you were doing there in the first place. When I look back on it now, I value it more for what I learned during the process as opposed to the final product. And that does stand for something. But stick with me, I do get better...

The TV Story Part XIII

2008-06-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

The next step was to get the voices in. In animation, before the characters are created, a rough "scratch" track is recorded with the dialogue the character will be speaking in order to synch his facial movements with the sound. So I recorded the initial lines for all the characters myself on my mp3 player, but I realized that I needed to get some real voice actors to provide the final audio. All of these things I learned, literally step-by-step as I went along. I'd get to a certain stage in the process, and then the animator would say something to like, "I need all the voices and sound effects by the end of the week." And I'd answer him, nonchalantly, "oh sure, no problem". And then I'd be up till 3am for the next 4 nights, online, searching for the right car screech and footsteps sound and listening to audio reel after audio reel of voice actors until I found a match for the voice I had imagined in my head for the characters, contacted the artists, negotiated their pay rates, and got them to record the lines, and had them revise anything that wasn't right, etc.

For the bandit, I found the perfect, gravely voice in an artist from Georgia. And he ended up doing the voice of the waiter and the policeman and the narrator as well. In retrospect, I'm not sure he was the right voice for the narrator, but the other voices were great. And he was happy to pitch in his talents on a shoestring to spread the good word.

This was right around Rosh HaShanah time, 2007. The animator, who was not Jewish, wanted to work over the holiday on the demo. So he needed the voices from me before we had a blackout in communications between us for a few days. The voiceover guy was Jewish, so I could not have him work on the voices into the holiday and just send them direct to the animator. I had to have them from him BEFORE Yom Tov. So on erev Rosh HaShanah, I had to explain to him , "I need those voices from you today, before the sun goes down in Georgia." To which he responded curiously, "Ok, but this is the first time I've ever had a deadline of sundown".

What I always found neat about this project is that although it's easy to get lost in the technical details of all the production, each step of the way was in itself, Torah. The content of the script, the boards, the dialogue. All of it was to illustrate a Torah idea. So as I had to explain what I wanted from each of the artists and professionals during production, I was essentially teaching Torah from the beginning of the process to the end.

The TV Story Part XII

2008-06-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

After a few rounds of bidding, I found a guy from Idaho (of all places) who was primarily an artist, but was looking to build his animation portfolio and was willing to do the job for the unheard of sum of about $500! Although he had no animation reel to demonstrate his talents, he assured me he was capable of pulling off this demo. In his words:

"What I may lack in experience I more than make up for in artistic ability, dedication and commitment to perfection and customer satisfaction. I realize it's a bit of a leap of faith for you so I'd be willing to take the project on spec, with you paying upon completion if you were satisfied with the final animation."

You can't argue with that. So I awarded him the project which was supposed to take 4 weeks to complete. The first step was hammering out the look of the characters. Here's what he gave me for the bandit and the Chinese waiter-

The TV Story Part XI

2008-06-12T22:51:00.001-07:00

The next step was to find someone to do the animation. The student I contacted earlier wasn't the one to execute the task. First, his animation was not up to par. I wasn't looking to produce Disney-grade content, but I wanted the end-product to look charming in a retro kind of way, kind of like the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle or Pink Panther cartoons. And the length I had originally anticipated the sample being-a minute, was now several minutes long according to the storyboards. I needed to find someone who wouldn't break my bank, as I was the one footing the bill for the demo, and at the same time could produce good work in a relatively short amount of time. As one animator I contacted put it succinctly-
"In animation, there are three ways to do it. Fast, Good, and Cheap. Unfortunately everybody can only have two of those. Fast and Cheap, or Good and Cheap or Fast and Good."
So I cast my bread upon the waters and put the script and boards up on guru and waited to see what would surface.

The TV Story Part X

2008-06-12T22:27:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately he was too busy to work on the boards for the script. I was back to square one. I decided to go online and do a search for storyboard artists and I stumbled upon an outsourcing site called guru.com. This is a site where you can post a description of your project and receive bids from professionals all over the world to work on your project. This is how I found Anand from Bombay who won the rights to do the boards for about 150$. We worked for several weeks corresponding via e-mail (we never once spoke to each other), with a 12 and 1/2 hour time difference between us, fine-tuning each box until finally the boards were done late July '07. Anand was literally a godsend. He was extremely professional, articulate, eager to please and had a great work ethic, and he answered every single one of my questions, giving me some insights into the animation process that I could not have foreseen. For e.g. in order to save costly animation time, it is often preferable to imply things as opposed depicting them visually, if the same result can be achieved. For instance, in my script I had originally had the bandit holding up a bank teller. Anand suggested that the short open with a scream from inside and then the bandit running out of the bank, which gets across the same message, cheaper and more efficiently. Those kind of things. Here's some screenshots of the boards for the "ben derusai" script.

The TV Story Part IX

2008-06-12T22:19:00.000-07:00

I didn't know any animators, and I knew even fewer storyboard artists. I asked around and got a referral to a friend of a friend in Maryland who had done some storyboarding for FOX. I called him up and told him the idea. He was interested in using his talents for a Jewish project and liked the idea of the "ben derusai" bit. After he got off the phone he quickly sketched some sample characters and scanned them and sent them off to me. I could see that he got it.

The TV Story Part VIII

2008-06-12T22:03:00.000-07:00

I decided I wanted to first produce a short sample to use as my calling card, a kind of a show piece that I could use to attract funding for the larger project. I figured if a picture's worth a 1000 words, a cartoon's gotta be at least twice that. The problem was, I didn't know the first thing about animation. At first I was naieve enough to think that if I could get someone else to do the drawing (I can't even draw a good stick figure), I'd just teach myself Flash and animate his drawings. So I got somebody to give me a copy of Flash and after about 18 seconds I realized that was not an option. So I literally tracked down a student animator from a local college and offered to by him lunch in return for letting me fire a half hour's worth of questions at him. That set the ball rolling. I learned that before any animation is produced, first a storyboard is created. A storyboard is like a series of comic book boxes that illustrate how each frame of the final product is supposed to look.

He told me to first get a storyboard of my script done and then he could look at it and determine how much it would cost and how much time it would take to produce the sample episode.

The TV Story Part VII

2008-06-12T21:41:00.000-07:00

As you can tell, this was pretty inspired stuff. The next bit was for a segment on the concept of “ma’achel ben derusai” (a halachic term to describe food that is one-third cooked {RASHI} or one-half cooked {RAMBAM}; it is the level at which a bandit in the times of the Talmud named Ben Derusai, who was always on the run, would eat his food). Here’s the script for that below:

Voiceover: When heating a solid food, such as meat (picture of meat) or raw potatoes (picture of raw potatoes), bishul is not transgressed until the food becomes edible (person bites into potato-his teeth fall out one by one). However, the food does not have to be fully cooked for this purpose.

Voiceover : With regards to the melocha of bishul (graphic enters from left top of screen-“bishul”-maybe superimposed over background picture of meat roasting on a spit), a food is considered “cooked” when it becomes even minimally edible (graphic-”minimally edible” enters from right bottom of screen).

Voiceover: This level is called Ma’achel Ben Derusai (picture of villain set at a slant- with graphic below “Ma’achel Ben Derusai”-there is a glint in his eye)

Voiceover: The term Ma’achel Ben Derusai, literally, food of a fugitive, refers to the manner in which a fleeing outlaw would be compelled to eat his cooked food (ext. picture of bank building), since such an individual could not afford to wait for it to be properly completed.

SOUND FX-GUNSHOTS, ALARM GOES OFF

Bank door opens and fugitive runs out, bag of money in hand, down a street, chased by 1 or 2 policemen, runs past a sign on wall which reads, "Hungry? Refuel here. Special discount for cash." (arrow points around the corner)

Fugitive turns corner and loses cops who run right past him down the street

Fugitive seated in restaurant with menu, bag of cash on floor between his feet.

Chinese waiter: "My name is Misa Meshuna, I will be your waiter for today..."

Fugitive (cutting him off) : Give me a steak, make it well done and make it snappy.

Waiter: (taking the menu), Yes sir. Right away sir.

Fugitive sits there, tapping fingers. We hear police sirens in background getting progressively closer.

Fugitive: “Waiter!"

Waiter comes-I'm sorry, your steak is not well done yet.

Fugitive: Hmm…tell the chef I'll take it medium.

We hear police megaphone telling fugitive that he is surrounded and that he should come out with his hands up.

Fugitive: "WAITER! WHERE IS MY FOOD?!"

Waiter-I'm sorry, your steak is still not ready.

Fugitive: Tell the chef I'll take it rare, just bring it out already.

We hear more sirens and then a policeman off screen begins counting, “Ok boys, on the count of three..."

Fugitive (desperately): Waiter! What is the status of my food?!"

Waiter: It’s 1/3 cooked, 1/2 cooked at the most.

Fugitive: Sounds delicious, I'll take it the way it is.

Voiceover: Because there are people who will eat food that is barely cooked, a minimum standard is thereby set by which a food may be determined to be halachically cooked.

Waiter serves steak that is exactly 1/2 red and 1/2 brown.
Voiceover: According to many opinions, this level is reached when the food is half cooked (graphic-maybe superimposed over steak? “1/2 cooked”). Other opinions hold that even just 1/3 cooked is sufficient (graphic dissolves to read “1/3 cooked” and steak turns from 1/2 red and 1/2 brown to 1/3 red and 2/3 brown)

We hear gunshots

Fugitive: On second thought, I better take this to go.

Waiter: Will that be cash or credit?

Fugitive: Cash!

We hear the police count “Three!”, large crash sound, and fugitive throws stack of bills up in the air and runs off.

The TV Story Part VI

2008-06-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

Ideas started to come to me fast and furious. I decided to begin with the laws of cooking on Shabbos. One of the first bits I came up with was for an animated segment on the concept of “keli rishon”. Here it is below:

Keli Rishon Segment

We see a Mohammad Ali type of character, he's wearing a bathrobe, as he prances around, boxing, we see embroidered on the back of the robe the words, “The Hottest”. He has a pot for a head, with eyes and nose and mouth, and where his neck is supposed to be there's fire heating the pot.

He's talking tough, “Listen up uncooked foods, Kalee Rishon (name sounds African) is gonna cook you till you’re done!”

He is interviewed by Howard Cosell-type character.
“This is Howard Bishul (accent on last syllable). We’re here today with the heavyweight cooking champion of the world, Kalee Rishon. Kalee, What would you do if I put a hardboiled egg up to you?”

“Howard, I’d cook it.”
“What would you do if I put a piece of chicken in there?”
“I’d cook it. I’ll cook anything, anywhere, anytime. Bring it on. I pity the food that comes into contact with me.”
“Kalee, there must be something that you're afraid of.”
“Nothin’, Howard. Absitively posilutely, nothin’. Nothing can stand up to me. I will even give the sucker a handicap. I will remove my head and put it right here....”

We see him remove the pot off his head and put it down on the table.

(NOTE-in halacha this is called a keli rishon she' hussar min ha’aish-it is a less potent form of heat than while the pot is on the flame and cannot cook certain tough things, like ox meat.)

The pot continues talking. “I dare anyone. I double dare anyone....”

“Well, Kalee. We have a contender. There's an ox who says his meat is resistant to your heat and would like to take a shot at you.”

The ox steps into an inner tube and dives into the pot of hot water and starts doing back stroke, enjoying the warm water. He sits on rim of pot, sipping pina colada. Kalee is defeated.

The TV Story Part V

2008-06-10T22:51:00.001-07:00

Around this time, some friends of the family visted and I hashed out the idea with them. They suggested that instead of taking on all of Shas to accompany the Daf Yomi cycle, I should take on various areas of halacha, like the laws of Shabbos, for e.g. I could take hard to understand and dry halachic concepts and bring them to life through the medium of animation. I could put out several 60 minute series on DVD's on various topics, for e.g. the laws of cooking on Shabbos, etc. and sell them in Jewish bookstores and online. They would make ideal gifts for newlywed couples, ba'alei teshuvah would find them helpful, seminary students. And teachers could use them as supplemental aids to help teach their students the finer details of halacha. This idea greatly appealed to me because a) each area of halacha was a finite task, as opposed to the entire Shas, b) I have always prided myself on taking dry concepts and making them playful. This is something I toyed around with in my yeshiva years. I used to take various sugyas of Gemara that I learned and I'd write scripts built around the pertinent information contained in the sugya. Here is a sample of a script for a mock audio production (it was written in the style of the old-time radio programs of the 30's and 40's, when radio was dubbed "the theatre of the mind").

EIDIM

(MUSIC UP: “Eidim, Eidim, Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do when they come warn you”)

NARRATOR: This special edition of “Eidim” is not taped, because it’s Shabbos, on location with the men, not the women, of Shabbos enforcement. Don’t ask us how you’re hearing it now. All suspects are innocent until Beis Din finds them guilty.

POLICE RADIO: We’ve got a possible 03 and/or 04 in progress at 675 Westwood Court.

WITNESS#1: We got a report from a neighbor of a Jewish male, about 5”8, in gardening clothes looking as if he’s about to do some weeding and watering work in his garden on the southwest portion of town.

WITNESS#2: We’re gonna walk over there now since it’s Shabbos and we can’t drive. See if there’s anybody there that fits that description. (FOOTSTEPS, GUSTY WINDS)

WITNESS#1: It looks like we’re coming up on the house, and we think this is the suspect in the front yard, so me and Lipschitz are going to go over and talk to him.

WITNESS#2: How ya doin’? You mind if we ask you a few questions?

SUSPECT: I’m great. I’m doing ok.

WITNESS #1: How’s your Shabbos going?

SUSPECT: Good. How are you?

WITNESS #1: I’m not so good, ‘cause you were picking up the watering can over there.

SUSPECT: I was just movin’ it because I need the space that it occupies.

WITNESS#1: Uh huh. It’s a nice garden you got here. Looks like somebody’s been doing some weeding. You know anything about that?

SUSPECT: No, not really.

(RUNNING, CHASING SOUNDS)

WITNESS#2: WE’VE GOT OURSELVES A RUNNER!!! HE’S RUNNING ACROSS THE GARDEN!!!

WITNESS#1: DROP THE CAN!!!

WITNESS#2: DROP IT NOW!!!

SUSPECT: NO!!!

WITNESS#2: HE’S GONNA WATER THE PLANT!!

WITNESS#1: We’re warning you. If you water that plant, you’ll be violating the commandment not to plow on Shabbos.

SUSPECT: Plowing? What do I look like to you, Juan Valdez? I’m not plowing. I just don’t want my plants to dry out.

WITNESS#1: When you water the ground, it softens it. Just like plowing softens the earth.

WITNESS#2: And you’ll also be violating the commandment not to sow.

SUSPECT: To sow? I don’t get it. I’m not planting anything.

WITNESS#2: Watering helps things grow, just like when you plant a seed in the ground you make something grow.

WITNESS#1: Why don’t you come back with us, have some cholent, sleep this off, and then you can do all the weeding and watering you want tomorrow.

SUSPECT: But my garden…

WITNESS#1: It’ll be ok till after Shabbos, I promise.

(MUSIC: “Eidim, Eidim, Whatcha gonna do, Whatcha gonna do when they come warn you”)

NARRATOR: If you see a Jew about to violate an issur D’oraisa of chillul Shabbos, call your local Eidim agency right away. But not by phone, obviously, because it’s Shabbos.

c) Lastly, this model would also be considerably cheaper than taking on the entire Talmud. I still wasn't sure how I'd finance the production, but in the meantime I tried to not let $ be an object and I presumed that the revenue from the sales of each DVD could be put towards the production of the subsequent ones. So it was primarily the first one that I needed to finance. That was somewhat more of an achievable goal.

The TV Story Part IV

2008-06-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

So I was off. I started finding out as much as I could about animation. I took out books from the library, cold-contacted animators for information. And I started to find out that it was not as simple as I thought. In my mind, animation was simpler than live-action, and presumably cheaper. This is not the case. Decent Flash animation can cost upwards of $1000 per minute and that minute can often take an experienced (individual) animator a full month to produce. At that rate, I would probably get through a single perek of Gemara before I left this world, and to do what I really wanted to do, i.e. make an accompaniment to every page of Shas, would be an astronomical sum and not within my grasp. So it was time to rethink things.

The TV Story Part III

2008-06-07T23:40:00.000-07:00

It seemed to make so much sense. I have an intense love of Gemara learning-I love the way there are so many layers to uncover and then suddenly what was previously dry and archaic comes fabulously alive. And I also have an intense love for imaginative things, and I saw this as a great vehicle for expressing myself creatively through the Torah. Granted, not all Gemaras lend themselves to cartoon format as does the Gemara about the deranged fellow, but that would be the challenge. Take the Gemara as it comes and show people that it can actually be, not neccessarily entertaining, but at the very least, interesting. I did not have a background in animation. My background was more in TV and radio, with an emphasis on comedy. But I wasn't really interested in making live action films on the Talmud. My interests would be greater served by finding animators to produce short, sometimes humorous Flash cartoons, which were (are) becoming all the rage, and having them accompany a reading of the Gemara. After nearly 10 years of searching, I finally figured out the synthesis, and what was more, I had a whole Shas for my muse. Enough to keep me busy for decades. More to follow.

The TV Story Part II

2008-06-07T23:21:00.000-07:00

Originally, it was an idea to take Gemara almost line by line and illustrate it through animation (i.e. cartoons, not comic books), over a voiceover of someone reading the Daf. The idea came to me while Daf Yomi was up to meseches Chagigah 3b. The way I imagined it was, a person could watch on his laptop, and as the maggid shiur read the Daf..."There are three classes of a 'shoteh': one who goes out alone at night"...and you'd see a guy walking the streets by himself in the wee hours of the morning..."one who sleeps in a graveyard"....and you'd see a guy taking his pillow and blanket into the cemetary..."and one who tears his clothing"...and you'd see a full moon and a guy would start howling and tearing his clothing apart. The idea was that Gemara can be so dry and boring and this would be a way to make it interesting. While you learned you could actually see the things happening. It would also obviously make the Gemara easier to understand and hopefully more memorable. Because isn't that what learning's supposed to be about? Enjoying your learning, incorporating it, and holding onto it? More to follow.

Greetings

2008-06-07T23:16:00.000-07:00

If you've stumbled upon this blog and are wondering what TV is all about, well, after a little over a year, I'm kind of wondering the same thing. It started with an almost 10 year struggle to find a synthesis between the entertainment world I grew up admiring and wanting to become a part of, and the eternity of the Torah. And then on the 2nd day of Pesach in 2007 I was sitting in shul in LA when the clouds suddenly parted and I got the idea to animate the Torah. More to follow.